Viewers
today are struck by the overtly sexual nature of the work, which is, in
part, the result of its intimate scale and monochromatic treatment. The
emphatic handling of the contours, the precise modeling that
articulates the male anatomy of the executioners, the strict profile and
rigid pose of the man just off center contrasted with the limp body of
Christ and the arrangement of heavily draped voyeurs hint at something
vaguely homoerotic. Many critics of the period noted with some alarm the
youth and feminine abandon of the Christ figure. And it is worth
mentioning that late 19th-century slang for a young male prostitute was
"petit Jesus." The connection between sensuality, sadism, and religious
fervor apparent in this drawing is shared with more exotic works, such
as Bida's "Ceremony of Dosseh" (WAM 37.901).

Highly ambiguous, this drawing can be read in a number of ways, and the
caption only serves to make the image more enigmatic. The central
character of this vignette wears an elaborate costume and covers his
mouth in a gesture of deep contemplation. We are given access to his
thoughts: "I have hurt Pamela." But if the dancing girl behind him is
Pamela, she looks anything but hurt! Either Pamela is not really hurt,
and the man is presumptuous in his belief that she is, or this woman is
the object of Pamela's disaffection. The lack of any setting further
enhances the mystery. Although it is called "Actors," a title curators
assigned it when they originally catalogued it into the collection in
the 1930s, there is nothing to indicate that this is a scene from a
play, and it could just as easily represent an event during carnival
season or a masquerade ball.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Charles Gates Sheldon (1889 - 1960)
studied at the Art Students League in New York, under Alphonse Mucha in
Paris, and then set up his own studio at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Sheldon painted a large number of portraits of female beauties
on magazine covers (Screenland, Woman's Home Companion, Collier's
Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Photoplay...), adverts and other
illustrations like high fashion portraits for Woman's Home Companion and
Theater magazine.